Starting a Business Is Hard. Ottawa Just Put $173 Million on It.
Every entrepreneur knows the part nobody warns you about — the part where you go looking for money and find out how the room is arranged. Ottawa just put $173 million toward making sure more Albertans get a seat at the table.
The Part Nobody Tells You
Amber Morrow opened Café Noir on Festival Square in downtown Lethbridge because she believed in it. Coffee, pastries, a space people would want to be in.
Every entrepreneur knows the part nobody warns you about. It comes after the idea, after the business plan, after you’ve convinced yourself it’s worth trying. Then comes the moment when you go looking for money and find out how the room is arranged.
Most people who start a business lean heavily on their personal savings, a line of credit, or someone who believed in them early. They figure it out. A lot of them don’t make it.
The ones who do usually had something working in their favour beyond just a good idea — a network, a relationship with a lender, access to the right room at the right time.
But not everyone gets the same access, and that’s where this story goes next.
The Gap Behind the Number
Women now own roughly 19% of Canadian businesses — up from 15.6% in 2017. More women are starting businesses, moving into sectors they weren’t in before, building operations that employ people and generate real revenue.
And yet women-owned businesses still receive about 4% of venture capital funding in Canada. Four cents on the dollar, in the room where the growth money gets decided.
According to research from the Ted Rogers School of Management, the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub and TD Women in Enterprise, women entrepreneurs in Canada are resourceful. 84% of those surveyed are funding their businesses through personal savings, credit cards, or family support, carrying the full financial risk without the investor networks or capital pipelines that make scaling easier for others.
When Minister Rechie Valdez showed up at Café Noir on Monday to announce $173.7 million in renewed federal funding for women entrepreneurs, Morrow said what many business owners would say if someone asked them plainly.
“It’s a big deal. I think women in business have been struggling to get capital and funding for a long time.”
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy has been running since 2018. By Ottawa’s own count, it has supported more than 500,000 women entrepreneurs across Canada. The Loan Fund offers up to $50,000. More than 1,600 loans have already been delivered. This week’s announcement renews and extends that work.
Alberta Women Entrepreneurs has been running alongside all this for thirty years — loans up to $150,000, mentorship, advisory services, programs built for where women actually are in building a business. The51 in Calgary focuses on growth capital for women-led ventures. Alberta Innovates ran a dedicated session on women founders and access to capital earlier this year.
The infrastructure exists. So does the gap.
Women make up roughly half the population and own one in five businesses. The math on what’s still untapped isn’t hard to do.
What It Means in Lethbridge, Red Deer, Grande Prairie
Federal funding announcements can feel abstract by the time they reach Alberta. This one is $173.7 million for entrepreneurs who’ve been building without an adequate safety net. It’s worth following to the ground.
A $50,000 loan to a woman starting a trades business in Red Deer is a truck, tools, and the first few months of operating costs. The difference between getting started and waiting another year. A mentorship connection through AWE’s network in Edmonton can mean the accountant who helps you survive your first tax year, or the introduction that gets you in front of your first commercial client.
These aren’t transformational numbers at the federal scale. At the individual and community scale, they’re often the thing that tips a decision toward yes.
Alberta’s economy is leading the country right now — 2.6% projected growth in 2026. That shows up in retail sales, construction, professional services, population numbers. What keeps it going is people building things, businesses employing people, more owners with enough capital to take a real risk.
The businesses people start tend to stay in the communities where they start them. They hire locally. They buy locally. They show up in a town’s character, not just its GDP.
Amber Morrow opened Café Noir on Festival Square in downtown Lethbridge. This week, Ottawa pulled up a chair.
Sources
Global News — New federal funding to support Canadian women in business: https://globalnews.ca/news/11916890/new-federal-funding-canadian-women-in-business/
Government of Canada — Minister Valdez announcement, Lethbridge: https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2026/06/minister-valdez-to-announce-major-federal-investments-to-support-women-entrepreneurs-in-alberta-and-across-canada.html
Means & Ways — Rechie Valdez on the business case for inclusion: https://www.meansandways.ca/news-articles/not-just-the-right-thing-but-the-smart-thing-rechie-valdez-on-the-business-case-for-inclusion
WEKH — State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Canada 2025: https://wekh.ca/report-the-state-of-womens-entrepreneurship-in-canada-2025/
WEKH Alberta Hub: https://www.wekhalberta.ca/
Elleiance Network — Why Canadian Women Entrepreneurs Still Struggle to Access Capital: https://www.elleiance.ca/blog/the-real-reason-canadian-women-entrepreneurs-struggle-to-access-funding
Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE): https://www.awebusiness.com/
Government of Canada — Women Entrepreneurship Strategy: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/women-entrepreneurship-strategy/en
